Monday, March 10, 2014

Venue : Lords London, year 2002……. Sourav Ganguly swung
his India shirt from the balcony………… perhaps in retaliation of Fredie Flintoff’s
action at Wankhede. It was Natwest
finals when India successfully eclipsed target of 326 by 2 wickets. NatWest (officially named National
Westminster Bank) is the largest retail and commercial bank in the United
Kingdom. Since 2000, it has been part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group,
ranked among the top 10 largest banks in the world by assets. Kaif scored 87 and was Man of the match…

Away in Bangladesh, Srilanka won the Asia
Cup for the 5th time in style…
after missing out with ankle injury,
Lahiru Thirimanne returned to the side scoring a century in the finals. Earlier, Lasith Malinga was Sri Lanka's hero of the day, taking all five
wickets that fell during Pakistan's
innings. Lankans left out Ajantha Mendis, who had till then been their highest
wicket-taker in the tournament. For Paki, Fawad Alam made maiden hundred; Sri Lanka have now won 34 matches
in the Asia Cup - the highest by a team in the tournament.

Back home, the dates of election to the biggest democracy
have been announced…. Perhaps you might have heard of the names of competitors going rounds in your area too…. Chetan
Chauhan, Kirti Azad, Mohammad Azharuddin, Navjot Singh Sidhu, (Sachin Tendulkar), Imran khan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunga, Aamir Sohail……………………. Some of the
Cricketers who turned politicians……….. [there are some who did politics in
Cricket too !]

Now comes the news that Mohammad Kaif, the
former Indian batsman, will contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar
Pradesh's Phulpur constituency on a Congress ticket. Kaif is one of 194 Lok
Sabha candidates whose names were released by the Congress Party on March 8. Kaif,
33, is an active domestic cricketer for UP. He played the Ranji Trophy in
2013-14 and a Vijay Hazare Trophy game against Vidarbha on March 5 this year.
He last played for India
in 2006, having ended his international career with 13 Tests and 125 ODIs. He made
624 runs in tests and 3922 runs in One dayers. This electrifying fielder first came to
prominence with his performances for India's Under-19s: he captained the
side, which also included Yuvraj Singh, Ajay Ratra and Reetinder Sodhi, that
won the Youth World Cup of 2000. Kaif’s
brother Mohammad Saif played cricket at first class level.

Asia cup brought to fore something else in
the land which made Jammu and Kashmir
chief minister Omar Abdullah state that
slapping of sedition charges against Kashmiri students in Meerut by Uttar
Pradesh government for cheering Pakistan team during a cricket match that India
lost was "unacceptably harsh punishment" and should be reversed. He said
- "I believe what the students did was wrong and misguided but they
certainly didn't deserve to have charges of sedition slapped against them. "I
believe the university did what it had to, to control the situation, but this
action by the UP government is uncalled for and should be reversed," Omar
wrote on Twitter.

Around 60 Kashmiri students at SwamiVivekanandaSubhartiUniversity
in Meerut were expelled for three days from the
hostel after they allegedly supported Pakistan
cricket team against India
in the Asia Cup match between the two sides on Sunday last. Sedition charges
were slapped against unnamed students later. SSP, Meerut, Omkar Singh said that on
the basis of the complaint submitted by university chancellor, unnamed Kashmiri
students have been booked under section 124 A (sedition), 153 A (promoting
enmity between different groups) and 427 (mischief) of IPC.

Omar, however, said the students did not
commit any illegal act, irrespective of the team they were cheering for. "Finally
while what the boys may have done in Meerut
is misguided, it certainly isn't illegal, regardless of who them (sic) were
cheering," he said. The chief minister said the students should introspect
their actions as they had been selected under the Prime Minister's special
scholarship scheme. Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) demanded that
sedition charge slapped against Kashmiri students in Meerut
for allegedly cheering Pakistan
team during a cricket match that India lost should be dropped and UP
government and the university apologize to them.

Sportsman spirit is different ~ when India
and Pakistan play, tempers run high – support to Pak from this side of the
border is often seen as disrespecting and disregarding the Nation ~ and
sometimes the support is not borne out of Cricketing reasons too. This newsitem which appeared in Daily Mail of
6th Mar 2014 provides another skewed angle to the episode.

Terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba on Thursday
added itself to the cast of characters in the bizarre Meerut sedition case drama. Hafiz Mohammed
Saeed, the chief of Lashkar front Jamaat-ud-Dawah, has sought to fan the flames
of the University incident by offering the
68 Kashmiri students suspended over cheering for Pakistan in Sunday's Asia Cup
match against India full scholarships to study anywhere in the world. The Pakistan
government got into the act too, with the foreign office spokesperson invoking
"hearts and institutions", and offering scholarships.

Brazen it is – the incident occurred within India and the State Govt has every power to take
action as it deems fit – how and why the Pak Govt should respond and how can
they offer scholarship to someone in India – sure there are enough students
needing scholarship in their own land.

Subsequent news state that in Meerut the police have
not found substance in the sedition charge against the Kashmiri students and
Section 124 (A) has been dropped from the case. However, the police will go
ahead with Section 153 (A) and 427 IPC against them." In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as
speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward
insurrection against the established order.